V. I. Lenin

Draft Resolution of the Majority’s Geneva Group

Written:Written later than August 25 (September 7), 1904Published:First published in 1960 in Vol. 9 of the Fifth Russian edition of theCollected Works.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 41,

      pages127.3-128.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

Whileby and large subscribing to the Riga
Declaration{1}as being a quite correct and principled expression of
the views and policy of the Party majority of the SecondCongress, the meeting deems it necessary to take a definite stand on the new
step taken by the C.C.

Themeeting voices its deep conviction that the C.C.
declaration{2}(seeIskraNo. 72{3}) strikes a major blow for clanishness as
against the Party principle, and is another betrayal of the interests of the
Party as a whole, a fresh attempt to corrupt the Party by introducing hypocrisy
into Party relations. The meeting brands the opposition by an accountable Party
organ to the convocation of a Party congress and its statement that any
agitation for the congress is harmful as a disgraceful fact not to be found in
the records of any dignified workers’ party. To receive one’s powers at a
Party congress from the Party majority and to proclaim this majority’s
policy to be a group policy; to speak of peace between the two contending sides
and to make a behind-the-scenes deal with the self-styled representatives
abroad of one of the sides; hypocritically to extol the “lofty”
stand of one’s opponents of yesterday and to begin reconciliation by
dismissing the members and agents of the C.C. who dared commit the crime of
agitating for a congress—all this is clear evidence that the new C.C. in
its new policy has decided to join the C.O. in treating the Party as a
nonentity. The meeting vigorously condemns this policy of Bonapartism, urges all
Party members to fight resolutely against usurpation and hypocrisy, and demands
the full publication of the Council’s minutes and all data on the activity
of the central bodies which do not have to be withheld for reasons of secrecy.

Themeeting calls on all members of the Party sharing the principled views of
the majority to support the publishing house set up by Comrade
=

Bonch-Bruyevich{4}and to agitate vigorously for the convocation of
the Third Congress.

{1}A reference to the appeal “To the Party”, adopted by a conference of
22 Bolsheviks and published as a separate leaflet by the Riga Committee of
the R.S.D.L.P. in August 1904

(see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 454–61).

p. 127

{2}A reference to theCentral Committee’s“July
Declaration”, a resolution adopted by the conciliator members of the
Central Commit tee—L. B. Krasin, V. A. Noskov and L. Y. Galperin—in
July 1904. It consisted of 26 points, nine of which were published inIskraNo. 72 of August 25 (September 7), 1904, under the title
“Declaration of the Central Committee”. The resolution was adopted
illegally, without the knowledge of two C.C. members: =

V. I. Lenin, who was in Switzerland, and R. S. Zemlyachka. They were
thereby deprived of the possibility of standing up for the Party majority’s
view in the Central Committee. In this resolution,the conciliators voiced their recognition of the Menshevik Editorial Board
of the newIskra, whom Plekhanov had co-opted. Three more
conciliators were co-opted to the Central Committee: =

A. I. Lyubimov, L. Y. Karpov, and I. F. Dubrovinsky. The conciliators came
out against convening the Third Party Congress and dissolved the Central
Committee’s Southern Bureau, which had been campaigning for the
Congress. They stripped Lenin of his rights as the Party Central Committee
representative abroad, and prohibited the publication of his works without
the permission of the C.C. collegium. The adoption of the “July
Declaration” marked a complete betrayal of the decisions of the Second
R.S.D.L.P. Congress by the conciliator members of the Central Committee and
their open switch to the Menshevik side.

Leninissued a sharp protest against the “July Declaration”. In his
letter “To Five Members of the Central Committee” and his pamphletStatement and Documents on the Break of the Central Institutions with
the Party, Lenin exposed the illegal acts of the three members of the
Central Committee (see present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 462–63, 529-35). Lenin
was supported by the Party’s local committees—St. Petersburg, Moscow,
Riga, Baku, Tiflis, Imeretia and Mingrelia, Nikolayev, Odessa, and
Yekaterinoslav—which resolutely condemned the “July Declaration”.

p. 128

{3}A reference to the MenshevikIskra. The Editorial Board of the
Party’s Central Organ, consisting of V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov and
L. Martov, was approved at the Second Party Congress. But contrary to the
Congress decision, the Menshevik Martov refused to sit on the Board without
the old Menshevik editors (P. B. Axelrod, A. N. Potresov and
V. I. Zasulich), who had not been elected by the Second Congress; soIskra’sNos. 46 to 51 came out under the editorship of Lenin and
Plekhanov. The latter subsequently switched to the Menshevik stand and
demanded the inclusion on the Board of the old Menshevik editors who had
been rejected by the Congress. Lenin could not accept this and withdrew
from theIskraEditorial Board on October 19 (November 1), 1903;
he was co-opted to the Central Committee and from there started a struggle
against the Menshevik opportunists.Iskra’sNo. 52 was issued
under the editorship of Plekhanov ale no, and on November 13 (26), 1903,
Plekhanov rode roughshod over the will of the Second Congress by co-opting
Axelrod, Potresov and Zasulich. From its No. 52,Iskraceased to
be a militant organ of the revolutionary Marxists. The Mensheviks turned it
into an organ for fighting Marxism and the Party, and a mouthpiece of
opportunism.

p. 128

{4}The Bonch-Bruyevich and Lenin Publishing House of Social-Democratic
Party Literaturewas set up by the Bolsheviks at the end of the summer
of 1904, whenIskra’sMenshevik Board refused to publish
statements by Party organisations and members in support of the decisions
of the Second Party Congress and in favour of convening the Third Party
Congress. The Publishers were given assistance by local Majority
Committees.

p. 128